We leave our dream beach and follow the Panamericana to Ático in the late morning to have lunch and do all kinds of shopping. Again, part of the Panamericana is temporarily closed to traffic due to construction work.

We arrive late at noon and the navigation system guides me across town and even across an airport runway to find a decent restaurant.

We moved the birthday with cake and balloons a week earlier and celebrated in Arequipa in a manner befitting our status.

Here, too, we need a lot of time. The place isn’t big enough to find a cake for Leon, so a muffin will have to do it.

We continue through a barren desert. We reach the town of Chala and decide to spend the night in the fishing village.

Things are looking good at the port. The sun is already low. We really can’t go any further.

We find a spot and watch the fishermen throwing the entrails of their catch to the seagulls and pelicans.

Other men are busy repairing their boats.

While Sara Leon is getting dinner ready, I strike up a conversation with a couple of young men. I’m watching a wedding on the beach that the boys are coming from. First they ask me where I come from and which Peruvian soccer players I know. Uwe would have known which. I do not know anyone. Then I’ll tell you about our trip again. The boys explain to me that they are taking graduation photos on the beach. So no marriage after all. They say goodbye and Sara, Leon and I use the decoration and the sunset for our own birthday photos.

A few girls are watching us and admiring our baby. A girl dares to talk to us and asks if they can take photos with the baby. Of course they can and I hug the first girl Leon directly. In front of the decoration of a bow, a fake cake and an armchair, the young ladies pose, one after the other, with Leon on her arm, who finds the whole thing very amusing.

It’s time to find something to eat, but for some reason, all the restaurants on the harbor promenade have suddenly closed. In the evening. On Friday night!

We’re looking for something and end up in a restaurant with all the boys and girls who also celebrate the birthdays of two of their members after graduation. Everyone is happy that we are here, the boys from the beginning and the girls who held Leon in their arms and everyone else, because we seem to be old acquaintances that everyone seems to know.

Half of the female party starts taking photos with Leon and he is passed from one person to another. The other half of the female company takes pictures of me. Since I’m so big, I’m an attraction. Leon and we have a birthday cake and drinks. So Leon still manages to get his birthday cake – even two.

We sleep well and no one bothers us at night. Only a few people with loud music in the car have to chat next to us at midnight of all places. The next morning, the fishing village comes alive again.

It’s weird, restaurants don’t open early to serve breakfast either. And why, in a country that produces excellent coffee, is it only ever offered instant coffee? What we didn’t expect are the olives.